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Have you’ve been searching for The Best Cowboy Cookies Recipe? THIS IS IT! Featuring coconut, pecans, cinnamon, chocolate, and oats – these cookies are thick, chewy, and so flavorful!
Cowboy Cookie Recipe
If there’s one thing I hope you know about me, it’s this: I AM OBSESSED WITH COOKIES!
So when a friend introduced me to Cowboy Cookies a few weeks ago, I was instantly intrigued. And a little embarrassed. Because, like… how have I never heard of these incredible cookies before? HOW?
They’ve been around for AGES! But they really rose in popularity during the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential campaign. Do you remember this? Apparently Family Circle Mag featured recipes from each of the candidates wives, and then had their readers vote. And Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies beat all of the other submissions black and blue! Although I must confess, Tipper Gore’s Ginger Snaps look pretty darn good, too.
But I digress! After my brief history lesson, I basically ran to my kitchen and got to work creating my own version of these famous cowboy cookies! I used my chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies as the base. But I added coconut, cinnamon, pecans, and chocolate chips. These are signature ingredients to cowboy cookies, so that’s nothing new. Since we added more dry ingredients to this recipe, I decreased the amount of flour and added an egg yolk, which helps keep the cookie dough moist.
Cowboy Cookie Ingredients
- butter: we’ll use brown butter because it has SO much flavor!
- light brown sugar: But dark brown could be used in a pinch! This ingredient adds sweetness and moisture. Be sure to really pack your brown sugar into the measuring cup before adding it to the recipe.
- granulated sugar: Because we don’t want too much moisture, we use a little granulated sugar, too.
- eggs: Make sure your eggs are at room temperature! And that they’re large eggs – not medium or extra large. When it comes to eggs, size does matter. So using a smaller or larger variety can totally throw off a recipe.
- vanilla extract: A generous dash enhances all of the complex flavors in this recipe.
- flour: Our beloved binder that holds everything together. Use all-purpose flour, for best results. And be sure you’re not packing your flour into the measuring cup. For the most accurate measuring, use a kitchen scale. Or, gently spoon your flour into the measuring cup, then level it off with the flat edge of a knife.
- baking soda: Our leavening agent, which help the cookies rise.
- cinnamon: Adds a delightful cinnamon flavor signature to cowboy cookies.
- salt: Balances out the flavors and ensures the cookies won’t be overly sweet. Skipping salt in baking recipes is a big mistake! The key is to use just a pinch! Trust me!
- old-fashioned oats: AKA rolled oats! But not to be confused with steel-cut oats or instant oats.
- shredded coconut: Use sweetened or unsweetened – up to you!
- pecans: But walnuts can be used, if you prefer!
- chocolate chips: or chocolate chunks! Up to you!
How to make Cowboy Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Combine butter with both sugars until light and fluffy.
- Then add eggs and vanilla. In a large bowl combine cinnamon, flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture, beating until just incorporated.
- Finally, stir the oats, chocolate chips, coconut, and pecans.
- Scoop 3-inch balls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 and 1/2 inches between so they have room to spread. Note: this makes BIG cookies. Because you’re using almost 1/4 cup of cookie dough for each. For smaller cookies, decrease the size and bake time!
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until cookies are golden and set at the edges and still slightly soft in the center. They’ll firm up as they cool! So don’t overbake! Cool cookies on baking sheet for 15 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
MORE COOKIE RECIPES:
- Chewy Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Coffee Cardamom Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Gooey Brown Butter Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Sea Salt
- Brown Butter Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
AND IF YOU TRY THIS COWBOY COOKIE RECIPE, LET ME KNOW! LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW AND DON’T FORGET TO SNAP A PIC AND TAG IT #BAKERBYNATURE ON INSTAGRAM! SEEING YOUR KITCHEN CREATIONS MAKES OUR DAY.
The Best Cowboy Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter melted until browned.
- 1 and 1/2 cups (319 grams) light brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup (99 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 and 1/3 cups (270 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (178 grams) old-fashioned oats
- 3/4 cup (60 grams) sweetened flaked coconut
- 1/2 cup (64 grams) pecans, roughly chopped plus more for decorating
- 12 ounces (340 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 (F). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a large bowl using a whisk, beat together the browned butter and both sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes. Don't worry if they look a little separated here.
- Whisk in the eggs and yolk, beating until well combined. About 45 seconds. Whisk in the vanilla.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, oats, coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing just until combined.
- Scoop 2-inch balls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2-inches between each ball so they have room to spread.
- Bake, one sheet at a time, in preheated oven for 12 minutes, or until cookies are golden and set at the edges and still slightly soft in the center.
- Press extra chocolate chips and pecans on top of cookies when they come out of the oven (optional). Sprinkle with sea salt, if desired.
- Cool cookies on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Where can I buy brown sugar?
Any grocery store should have it in the baking aisle – or you can order it online!
It’s in the baking aisle, usually in a plastic bag beside the powdered sugar.
There’s a disconnect between the photo and the recipe. In the photo the pecans are left whole and there’s some sort of salt sprinkled on top. Not that big a deal except for that I scrolled up and down and up and down to see if there was some discussion or comments about that. It is really tough to use recipes that require you toMove all over the place to find the instructions and comments and then the ingredient list and then the real instructions. Makes me feel like I need to print instead of use Pinterest. I like to find recipes that I want to keep and use over and over again. Hope this is delicious and worth the site dancing.
Hi Dawn. I used extra finely grated coconut and whole pecans to decorate the top of the baked cookies. If you’d like yours to look like mine, simply press a few whole pecans on top of the freshly baked cookies then sprinkle with coconut.
Tap on “print” then screen shot the recipe. Makes it easier to follow
Thank you, Sherri! I have never tried screenshot on the print version. This is a game changer! I like Pinterest for recipes but dislike all the moving ads and videos that pop up constantly while scrolling to find the recipe. You have helped me so much!
Screenshot all I do an it helps
It is worth any trouble you find !! Great recipe the best !! I used mini chocolate chips ….loved the sea salt sprinkled over top after baking !! Amazing !!.
PRINT the recipe, put the paper in a folder with all of your other recipes and put the folder in a drawer. Or you might be like my girlfriend who is helpless in the kitchen when the internet goes out! She can barely boil water – she keeps trying to fry it.
Look at instruction #8 and it explains. Totally optional
Hi Dawn! I’m sire with recipes like this, you can tweak it to fit your style. For me, I would coarsely chop the pecans in the food processor, just to break them up a bit before adding to the recipe. The salt sprinkled on top is probably sea salt. It adds a slight salty flavor, like salted caramel, and is totally optional. Hope this helps 🙂
If I want to add banana into this . What are the changes I should make? I have over riped bananas at home I want to use them in this cookies please reply asap.
I hope I’m too late… but maybe you should make some banana bread insteaf
Hello! I’m not sure if you can answer this, but would it be possible to make these cookies without butter? Using something else as a substitute?
You can use a plant based butter sub
These are the best cookies ever! My family loved them and ate a whole batch in one night!
I made these today and they are awesome. Easy recipe with very clear instructions and great hints for better results. My family loves them!
I just made this morning and they are so delicious Easy recipe with very clear insurrections. I love them and will be gifting these in my thank you baskets tomorrow. Hoping I don’t eat them all before I pack it. 🙂
What adjustments do I need to make if I use Quick Oats?
I made these but mine really spread out. They aren’t thick like your photo
Try refrigerating them for at least a couple hours to give the dough time to rest. It does help.
I rolled a quarter cup of dough into balls and froze them . When I wanted to
Bake them I
Pit each on a parchment lined cookie sheet two inches apart and baked them 350 for 17 minutes .
They came out awesome . Just leave them on the cookie cookie sheet until they firm
Up .
Mine also. The six-year old great grandson took a bite and said, “I can’t tell you what’s wrong with these cookies.” A check of similar recipes shows twice as much flour and only 75% as much butter. That seems about right. Meanwhile three thumbs down for the recipe as shown above.
Amazing! OregonJon has to be mixing this up with another recipe. Makes no sense. I have extensive baking background and these are awesome
Delicious cookies…I cut back on Br. Sugar and still turned out just fine. Definitely a keeper recipe!
A recipe with the correct amounts for the ingredients would be most helpful.
would you elaborate on WHAT you think is wrong with this recipe? Your rating is very cryptic! 🙂
I made these today, and they turned out great! Love the cookies, and the recipe for easy to follow
I made two batches of these and everyone loved them. They are now my favorite cookie. My coworkers have already asked for more.I am glad I read the comments too so I could see how you added the extra touch to the cookies to make their appearance pop.
Could you please help me? My mother used to make cookies called Dunkers! Chewy a hint of crisp, Choc chips. Oh they were so good! I can’t find the recipe!
I know it was a big batch recipe, like 8 dozen or so.
It had in them, oats, rice krispies, brown sugar white sugar, 2 cups of melted butter and whatever add in you wanted! I always asked for Choc chips!
Do you have a recipe for these delicious cookies??? Thanks Leigh
Just made these cookies tonight. The flavor is full and very delicious but texture is softer than I had anticipated. My dough was wet and very sticky, not crumbly like the photo suggests. What did I do wrong? I definitely want to try again!
How would one adjust this recipe at 5,545 elevation?!
Your recipe says makes 2 dozen which I did but the size was a lot bigger than your picture …. maybe you should explain that you decorated them with pecans and coconut and was not part of the recipe …you are a little misleading
Not a fan of coconut so I added about 4 oz. of craisins with good results. Next time I plan to increase the amount of cinnamon, or maybe add some coconut extract to kick up the flavor a bit.
When I came across these cookies I was so excited to make them! I purchased all the ingredients and was ready to get going when I read all the “negative” reviews. I was surprised and disheartened but decided to move forward as I already had my heart set on them! Boy, am I glad I didn’t listen to those people! I just took my first batch of cookies out of the oven and they are spectacular!! I am not sure why so many people are having such a hard time with these very detailed instructions!! I suspect they didn’t follow the first rule of making someone else’s recipe which is, READ the recipe ALL the way THROUGH BEFORE starting!! Thank you for sharing and I am so excited to feed these to my Family this week! My husband who is here has already given them a thumbs up!!
This made my day! So happy you enjoyed them, Janet. Happy holidays!
These are heaven. Absolutely delicious. Disagree with negative comments. We used chopped pecans. But still were great
Can you freeze these cookies?
Yes! You can freeze the cookie dough for up to 2 months and then bake (just add a minute or two onto the bake time) or freeze the cookies.
I made these cookies tonight. They turned out perfect! My husband absolutely loved them! I will be adding this to the keeper recipes. I’m not sure why anybody was having problems with them unless maybe they didn’t make sure that the butter and the eggs were at room temperature. I also had my milk at room temperature.
I just made these cookies and while they’re very good oatmeal cookies, they don’t look anywhere near as good–dark and chunky with chips and nuts peeking through — as they’re pictured on this website. I made sure to keep my pecans very chunky and I used a combination of chocolate chips and chocolate chunks to give the cookies the chunky texture pictured but they still look like your average oatmeal cookie. They’re also the same pale color as other oatmeal cookies. If I’d baked them longer to make them darker they would have been hard as a rock. But, as I said to start with, they’re still good cookies.
Hi Marion. I’m glad you liked the taste! Did you see my notes about pressing extra nuts and chocolate chips on top of the warm cookies when they come out of the oven? That’s how I achieved that look. As far as the color of the cookies, I’m not sure why yours looked pale. But every oven does run a bit differently, do that could have something to do with it.
Hello can I make this dough and chill in the fridge for a few days?
Absolutely awesome! Not sure where all the negative comments came from but these were so easy to make, and delicious. I went right by your awesome directions with several little changes due to not having all we needed..We used quinoa 1/2 cup with a cup of flour, and we only had walnuts available as well. There was no need to chill before forming balls and ended up with 47 beautiful cookies. Thank you again for sharing your recipe..It’s on my favorite list….
HI, I would like to try these, I’m just not a fan of the texture of coconut. Can I eliminate that without major consequences? Should I substitute something else in?
I have the same question, Charlotte. What do I need to do if I want to remove the coconut?
Can I add Rice Krispies to this recipe, and would I need to decrease any ingredient by doing so?
Excellent recipe! Definitely a favorite when I made them! I’m quite sure I will be making them again!
Sooo good
Excellent cookies. Thick and lush added a little corn starch to soften and keep moist. A huge hit! Thx for sharing !!
Really good cookie!
These are very moist almost wet cookies. I added an additional 1/4 cup flour and half cup oats but I think the flour-oat ratio is off. They look lovely and taste like your eating a bowl of oatmeal. I baked them until the edges were firm and golden but the middle was still wet and gooey so I left the next batch in longer by 2 minutes and the edges got darker and the middle looked shiny. When they cooled they were still very moist-wet. I think I’ll stick to my own cowboy cookie recipe. Not bad, just not a hit.
Vanilla???
These came out PERFECT! I don’t know what the other bakers were doing wrong, but I followed the recipe down to the the baking time, and they are AMAZING!!
Are these supposed to get hard or did I do something wrong?
These cookies are so soft and chewy! Follow the recipe including putting extra chocolate chips and pecans on after baking and you will not be disappointed!
Cowboy cookies have been my favorite since I was a little girl and there’s are the best! Browning the butter takes it over the top!
Great recipe. Just the right amount of butter to be flavorful but not flat.
Hi, you have vanilla listed in the list of ingredients, but it is not in the instructions of the recipe. I missed it when I made them.
When do I add the vanilla ? I’m sorry I didn’t see it in the instructions
Delicious!! Will make again!
Recipe doesn’t give butter proportion
These were THE best cookies Ever! My husband could not stop eating them. Definitely a keeper!
Cookies are great. However, I forgot to put in the vanilla extract because it is not included in any of the steps.
I added pretzel bits! Yum!
How do I store them?
I am not a fan of chocolate. Can I use raisins instead? I am anxious to try this recipe. The browned butter has me pumped…lol
Can I make these without coconut? Would that mess up the recipe with the measurements?
My new favorite. So yummy.
Didn’t have chocolate chips on hand so I ended up using my hubby’s bag of plain M&M’s in place of.
These cookies are so good I use them as bribes at work. My coworkers will do almost anything for these cookies. The recipe is simple to follow. I had never used brown butter until reading this recipe. Thanks so much for telling us how to make the butter. I followed the recipe as listed and they have become a favorite.
These look amazing! However I don’t like coconut. How much would it change the recipe if I didn’t add it?
Hi! Can’t wait to make these! Do you think it would be ok to slightly roast a few pecans before adding one or two to the tops after baking?
Is there a reason that my cookies did not spread like the photo?
Very good. Mine seemed too “cakey”, not enough liquid?
There are some discrepancies between the instruction discussion above, and the instructions with the recipe – top says 3” balls and 1.5 inches apart and below it says 2” balls, and 2 inches apart…?
Super easy to make, satisfying, and delicious. My new go to when I need a quick bake to take anywhere. Easily substitute GF 1:1 flour and oats to make GF friendly; does not affect texture or taste!
These are the best cookies ever! The most amazing thing about these is that we can freeze the cookie dough for up to 2 months and then bake it.
hi I was wondering if I could make these without flour, butter, sugar, nuts or oats?
No lol.
I am going to make these cookies because I know they will be delicious… I appreciate you doing all the hard work by creating the recipe… for those asking about the vanilla-it is #3 of the instructions. After adding in eggs “whisk in the vanilla”. There is a lot of negativity in this world and this recipe will definitely be a positive
Thank you so much, Andrea!
Kind of like these better than my go to choc chip cookies
Yum! These were delicious! My coworkers loved them too and one of them asked for the recipe. I made them a little smaller to yield 36 cookies. I added less chocolate chips so I could add more nuts and they were great!
Don’t know why the negative reviews, these cookies were fantastic! I toasted the nuts and coconut, and refrigerated the dough for an hour before scooping and baking. Turned out just as golden and thick as the picture! Absolute heaven
Thanks so much for the glowing review, Katie! Thrilled you enjoyed them!
I want to rate these 5 stars but there is something I’m missing in process that leaves these cookies round and pale. They are not spreading out and browning as they should. I’m following the recipe exactly, or at least I think I am, I’ve done it twice and the same thing happened both times. They are good but ugh! what am I doing wrong?
My cookies didn’t expand? They are small and fluffy. What am I doing wrong?
Hello,
thank you so much for sharing this recipe. a couple of questions:
Does the browned butter need to be cooled before using it?
Does the dough need to be refrigerated before baking? How would that change the recipe?
I’m not a fan of coconut. Anything I can substitute it with? I’d like to make these